https://www.socialistworld.net
Thu, 12 Sep 2019 16:39:05 +0000en-CA
hourly
1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.3https://www.socialistworld.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/favicon.icohttps://www.socialistworld.net
3232Violence against women in South Africa: How should organised workers respond?https://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/13/violence-against-women-in-south-africa-how-should-organised-workers-respond/
Fri, 13 Sep 2019 05:13:52 +0000https://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15355The rape and murder of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana was the final spark that lit a new wave of protests demanding an end to violence against women. She was killed by a Post Office [...]

]]>The rape and murder of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana was the final spark that lit a new wave of protests demanding an end to violence against women. She was killed by a Post Office employee who, alongside 300 others, failed a vetting process because of their criminal records. He had a previous rape charge but the case had been withdrawn. However Post Office employers sat on the report for more than a year and Uyinene’s killer used his position to identify and target her. He even bludgeoned her to death using a Post Office scale.

Uyinene’s body was discovered on 2 September following a slew of reports of murdered women. This included boxer, Leighandre Jegels, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend – a police officer. Many of the murdered women, including Jegels, had police protection orders against the abusive partners that killed them.

A mass memorial for Uyinene at the University of Cape Town, on 4 September, showed the depth of feeling and the depth of anger amongst women and young people. Memorials and vigils took place on other campuses and solidarity marches in other cities and towns. Protesters assembled outside the World Economic Forum on Africa conference in Cape Town, the same day, with university and school students at the forefront. The police attacked the demonstration with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. On 5 September, more than ten thousand protested outside parliament in Cape Town, demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa come out and tell them what his government planned to do to stop gender based violence.

On Friday 13 September, a protest has been called in Sandton, Johannesburg, the economic hub of the country, outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

In 2016, out of every 100,000 women and girls in South Africa, 12.5 were violently killed. This was five times the global average of 2.6. In 2017/18, this increased to 15.2 – 2,930 murdered women; the slain bodies of an additional 291 women and 29 girls.

Whilst men are five times more likely than women to be murdered, itself a social crisis, it is the fact that so many women are being murdered by men who feel entitled to control and possess women, treating them like personal property, that has led to the outpouring of anger. Uyinene and the other women should not have been abused, raped and killed! The sexist attitudes of their male murderers led them to assume the power of life and death over their victims – to commit femicide.

Gender inequality is rooted in class inequality and emerged with class society. Under capitalism, women are frequently paid less than men, concentrated in low-paid sectors such as cleaning and retail and precariously or casually employed by contractors or as domestic workers. Women are also most likely to be the main carers for children and the elderly and perform the majority of domestic work in the home. For capitalism, this helps keep labour cheap and taxes for social services low.

The foundation of capitalist economy in commodity production – where everything is for sale – commodifies women’s bodies, turns them into objects and encourages the idea that women only exist for the entertainment and pleasure of men. The social conditions of capitalism are a breeding ground for the sexist attitudes that justify the many forms of violence against women – rape, assault, domestic violence, ‘cat-calling’ etc.

Protests

Protests have been mobilised under the banners #AmINext, #TheTotalShutdown and others. Young people and students have played a central role. Significantly, protests are being called using appeals to working class methods of mass struggle, e.g. shutdowns and stay-aways.

This points the emerging movement in the right direction. However, at this stage, this language is symbolic, and not based on a conscious strategy to mobilise the working class. For example, #TotalShutdown’s 2018 call for women to stay-away from work was not linked to appeals to workers and their trade unions for the mobilisation and shutdown of workplaces, i.e. united strike action. In reality this limited the call to an appeal for women workers to take the day off.

Many of the protestors are rightly suspicious of the willingness of the ANC government, the political parties in parliament, the police and the courts to seriously tackle gender based violence. They are right to be. The ANC’s Traditional Courts Bill will reinforce gender inequality for millions of women in rural areas, living under so-called ‘Traditional Authority’. These areas are nothing more than the apartheid-era ‘homelands’ re-packaged and re-branded to defend the privileges of the former apartheid-sponsored ‘tribal’ elites. This continuation of apartheid-era policy by the ANC would legalise the oppression of more than half of all women in the country by denying them the right to legal representation.

But one of the main demands of protesters outside parliament was for the government to declare a state of emergency. Whilst this was a demand for a gesture from the government that it ‘gets it’, it was nevertheless incorrect. It would be suicidal for the movement to support increasing the repressive powers of this ANC government and the state in general, including giving any support to the idea of re-introducing the death penalty in the name of combating violence against women.

The last time a state of emergency was declared was in the 1980s by the white-minority regime used to suppress the mass movement against apartheid. An ‘undeclared’ state of emergency existed in the North West in 2012 around the mass movement that led to the Marikana massacre of striking mineworkers.The ANC government used the army to suppress mineworkers’ meetings, protests and strikes. In Johannesburg the police have fuelled xenophobia with their brutal ‘crack down’ on so-called ‘criminal elements’. Outside the World Social Forum last week, protesters against gender based violence (GBV) were attacked by police with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.

Ideas

The confusion on these issues reflects a lack of clarity over which force in society has the power to make the decisive difference in the struggle to stop violence against women. Is it women alone? If so, who should they look to as their allies? Is it this anti-women and anti-poor ANC government? Is it the repressive capitalist state? Is it the super-rich leaders of big business whose quest for profit has entrenched poverty?

The answer to this question determines the tactics and strategies that different organisations will pursue. At this stage it is the middle class, especially the NGOs, which are setting the ideological tone of the movement against GBV. They look to work with big business, the capitalist politicians and the state. Protests are to pressure them but not to challenge their control of society and the capitalist class structure they defend.

In #TheTotalShutdown’s ‘24 Steps to Stop Gender-Based Violence’, the demands are entirely limited to legislative reform, improved compliance with legislation, for greater accountability of government departments and some improvements in social services. There is nothing to oppose in these demands. But they do not even touch the underlying class inequalities, mass unemployment and poverty that breed sexist attitudes and violence against women. The press release for the #SandtonShutdown protest planned for Friday appeals to “business to realise their moral, ethical responsibility to the communities where they operate” and calls on “businesses to close their doors and join womxn” on the protest. This points the movement in the wrong direction.

In the Marxist Workers Party we argue that the many women and young people radicalised by the struggle against gender oppression and GBV should rather look towards a united movement of the working class. It is only the working class which has the power to fundamentally transform society, abolishing capitalism and the class inequalities that gender oppression is rooted in. Under the leadership of the middle class ‘shutdowns’ and ‘stay-aways’ can never be much more than symbolic. They can only be given flesh and blood by the powerful social position of organised workers in the economy.

Workers

In June, mine workers at the LanXess chrome mine in Rustenburg – members of the NUMSA union – organised a strike and occupation in protest against the sexual harassment of a woman mineworker. Her manager was demanding sexual favours in exchange for a permanent job. This has set a shining example for how workers can take up the issue of harassment and violence against women. Workers have the power to force the removal of perpetrators from the workplace.

But crucially, because of their position in the economy, workers have the power to improve the position of women in society more generally. Every workplace demand and struggle for equal pay, higher pay, against gender discrimination in promotion and job opportunities, for housing allowances, transport allowances and longer paternal leave, increases the independence and choices available to women. Wider working class movements on healthcare, housing, social services, childcare and schooling do likewise.

A mass working class movement can lay the real social foundations upon which gender equality can be built. The struggle for women’s liberation is part of the class struggle and needs to be re-written on the banner of the workers movement.

But workers will not limit themselves to moral appeals to the bosses on issues of GBV any more than they do in wage negotiations. GBV will be transformed into a class issue that depends on organisation and struggle. This will expose the hypocrisy of the capitalist class. In the name of defending their profits, let the bosses refuse workers’ demands for pay rises, increased housing allowances etc., linked to the struggle to improve the lives of women.

The tendency in the middle class-led movement toward encouraging separate organisation according to gender, whilst not inappropriate in every instance, only plays into the hands of the bosses in the class struggle by weakening the bonds of working class unity and dissipating the strength and striking power of workers. It will make no sense to workers. The need for a united working class movement will be obvious.

To prepare the way for such a working class movement the trade unions should launch a Campaign Against Sexual Harassment, Domestic Violence, Rape and Femicide to raise the level of understanding on these issues amongst all trade union members – women and men – and ensure the unity of workers on this issue. Workplace meetings should take the initiative and begin the discussion, passing resolutions to create pressure in the structures and upon leaders. With the poor record of some existing trade union leaders on gender issues, such a campaign will help rejuvenate the leaderships with a fresh influx of militant working class women in particular.

A workers’ programme to end gender based violence:

For working class unity and leadership against gender based violence! Build a class-independent trade union Campaign Against Sexual Harassment, Domestic Violence, Rape and Femicide. United workers’ action to end sexual harassment in the workplace. Build links with working class community organisations.

For gender equality in the pocket! Equal pay for work of equal value. Poverty pay IS violence against women. Struggle for a living minimum wage of R12,500 for all workers. Nationalise non-complying big business. If the capitalists cannot afford gender equality, then workers cannot afford the capitalists. Companies and businesses must open their books to demonstrate unaffordability; in proven small business cases, government subsidies to make up the shortfall.

Workers’ economic planning to end unemployment! Demand the working week is reduced to 30 hours with no cuts in pay. Share out the work with the unemployed, organised through the democratic control of hiring and firing and the re-design of shift patterns by workers’ representatives.

Follow the example of the LanXess workers – an injury to one woman is an injury to all workers! Make gender based violence a real cost to the bosses’ bottom line. Strike and walkout to picket police stations and courts in defence of all colleagues who are made victims of gender based violence. Organised trade union participation in Community Policing Forums to fight for community oversight and control of policing and ensure all reports of GBV are taken seriously and dealt with professionally and quickly.

End the class foundations of gender inequality. Nationalise under democratic working class and community control the banks, the mines, the commercial farms, the big factories and big businesses. A publicly owned and democratically planned socialist economy to meet the needs of all and not the profits of the capitalists.

Build the fighting unity of the working class in a party of mass struggle. Build a socialist mass workers party to unite the struggles of the workplaces, the communities and the youth as a vital step toward the creation of a mass revolutionary party to lead the struggle for socialism.

]]>Campaign mounts over historic sexual-abuse allegations cover-up in Fermanagh, Northern Irelandhttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/12/campaign-mounts-over-historic-sexual-abuse-allegations-cover-up-in-fermanagh-northern-ireland/
Thu, 12 Sep 2019 10:45:53 +0000https://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15346Northern Ireland is a society scarred by its history. The legacy of the conflict over the national question is everywhere apparent; painted flags, kerbstones and murals mark territories and promote narratives. But just as the [...]

]]>Northern Ireland is a society scarred by its history. The legacy of the conflict over the national question is everywhere apparent; painted flags, kerbstones and murals mark territories and promote narratives. But just as the history of the working-class has been excluded consciously from these ‘green’ and ‘orange’ narratives so too is the hidden legacy of sexual abuse of children which until now has largely been left unexplored.

Fermanagh journalist, Rodney Edwards, deputy editor of the local newspaper, The Impartial Reporter, was investigating reports of a paedophile ring operating in the county when he started to receive more and more reports of sexual abuse spanning decades into the past. A common feature was that the victims had reported the incidents to the police but there was an apparent failure to investigate or see the cases through.

The cases were predominantly reported during the period of the long armed conflict, known as the ‘Troubles’.

Those whose names have been made public span the breadth of society. One alleged prominent abuser, David Sullivan, worked as a bus driver and was reportedly responsible for a range of abuses of children (sometimes on school buses) in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of those abused by Sullivan claim that he abused them in conjunction with unnamed prominent businessmen. Sullivan’s dismembered body was found in the early 2000s and the culprit for the killing has never been found.

Other alleged abusers exposed in recent weeks include the headmaster of a local Catholic primary school (and prominent Gaelic Athletic Association member) and a number of Orange Order members. The list of alleged abusers is understood to extend to include prominent businessmen, republicans and police members. As has been pointed out by campaigners, it seems that many of those most centrally involved in the abuse were people who in the course of the Troubles were in positions of power and authority over children.

Every week for more than six months, Rodney Edwards has brought forward new revelations of sex abuse which are sending shockwaves across Fermanagh society and the North of Ireland, where the saying “whatever you say, say nothing”, associated with dangers surrounding the Troubles, has almost totemic power. At present, more than 60 alleged abusers have been identified (but not named by the newspaper) with more than 50 alleged survivors coming forward. But not one alleged abuser has been charged let alone brought to a court of law to face a jury trial.

Protests

The apparent inaction by police has drawn further questions about why they have failed to act. Attempts to raise the issue at the local council have been stymied, and myself and independent councillors have had our speaking rights curtailed with the support of the councillors from the other parties. Indeed, in the last week I have been threatened with action for questioning whether the council has questions to answer – over allegations of child sex abuse occurring in council toilets – by council officials.

The Fermanagh Council of Trades Unions initiated an initial protest at Enniskillen Courthouse steps on the issue and this has been followed up by two further protests. At these protests, victims of historic childhood sex abuse have spoken out, demanding action from the police and the relevant authorities. At the first, no other politicians were present despite it being well-publicised. However there was strong support from local people, especially as the protesters took their placards in hand and walked through the town rallying at the central Diamond area, before continuing their protest outside the town’s fortified police station.

A second protest was held on Enniskillen’s town Diamond area. Again, union banners were prominent and alleged victims got up to speak publicly and encourage others to come forward and to demand justice. This time representatives of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Fein and the “cross community” liberal Alliance Party attended and spoke. Commitments were made that the subject would not be buried and instead it would be discussed freely at the council meetings (commitments that vanished into thin air).

A third protest was held recently at the Enniskillen Courthouse steps to highlight the continued inaction by police on the issue.

The campaign occurs against a backdrop of worsening community divisions and indeed cuts across them. Recent weeks have seen tensions surge across Northern Ireland over marches, flags, Brexit fears and incendiary speeches by politicians, on both sides. Just days after the ‘Justice’ campaign protest there was an attempt to kill police and army bomb disposal crews with a secondary explosive device planted in the county.

Kincora scandal

Historic sex abuse is a clearly pervasive issue in Fermanagh, a situation highly likely to be replicated across Northern Ireland. Much has been written on how British Intelligence facilitated the abuse of boys at the Kincora boys’ home, in Belfast, in the early 1970s – which was used to entrap both Unionist and Loyalist political leaders. At the very least, a culture normalising sex abuse – like domestic violence – predominated during the period of the conflict. Secret societies and organisations and the deference with which figures of authority were held in this society no doubt contributed to that situation.

For the journalists who chose to pursue these stories, their work can bring them into a head-on conflict with elements of the state. NUJ National Executive member, Anton McCabe, who spoke at the most recent rally for justice, highlighted the need to defend press freedom and spoke against police pressures on investigative journalists pursuing historic stories. Most recently the nature of this pressure was brought into the open by a recent judicial review held in Royal Court of Justice. This found against the police arrests and raids of investigative journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, for making the ‘No Stone Unturned’ documentary which exposed police collusion in the ‘Loughinisland massacre’, in which six Catholics were murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries, in 1994. The pressure is on local journalists to drop their investigations and exposes and ‘let the police get on with their work’ – but threats and intimidation notwithstanding that is not going to happen.

Uncovering the truth and the fight for justice for survivors is intimately linked with challenging the culture of deference to authority which has held down and separated working-class people for too long. It is also part and parcel of finding out the truth of the capitalist state’s role during conflict. Seeking justice for the victims of sex abuse is not just about securing closure and support for their ongoing needs – it helps open up the space necessary for working-class people to reshape our society in the future. The survivors and their supporters who are driving this campaign come from both sides of the community and demonstrate that such an outcome is possible even in a divided society like Northern Ireland.

]]>Chile 1973: The other ‘9/11’ – The bloody coup against the Popular Unity governmenthttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/11/chile-1973-the-other-9-11-the-bloody-coup-against-the-popular-unity-government/
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 10:42:31 +0000https://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15341The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001 was not the first ‘9/11’. In Chile on 11 September 1973, a bloody coup, led by General Pinochet and backed by the US [...]

]]>The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001 was not the first ‘9/11’. In Chile on 11 September 1973, a bloody coup, led by General Pinochet and backed by the US administration, overthrew the democratically elected left government of President Salvador Allende.

In its aftermath, thousands of trade unionists and socialists were slaughtered and thousands more imprisoned, tortured and exiled.

The coup was planned and executed not from the tribal territories of Afghanistan or Pakistan but in the headquarters of the CIA and the White House, in collusion with the ruling elite in Chile and its armed forces.

This 9/11 should be commemorated, and its lessons studied, by socialists and workers everywhere.

The consequences of what followed still shape the lives of the mass of Chilean people and to an extent, the international working class and all those exploited by capitalism.

Under the iron heel of Chile’s military dictatorship, a laboratory economic experiment was conducted.

The neoliberal policies of privatisation, open markets, deregulation and private pension schemes were all first tested out in Chile following the coup.

They were then applied by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and other capitalist leaders internationally.

The coup followed the election of Salvador Allende to the Chilean presidency on 4 September 1970, as head of the Popular Unity (UP) coalition.

This was led by the Socialist Party (PSC) and the Communist Party (PCC), together with other left parties and some radical liberal capitalist parties.

The election victory shook the ruling elite. It opened a revolutionary process that inspired the working class internationally and terrified the ruling classes throughout Latin America, the US and Europe.

Following Allende’s election, the US Ambassador cabled Washington: “Chile voted calmly to have a Marxist-Leninist state, the first country in the world to make this choice freely and knowingly.”

The PSC in that period was a completely different party to that which exists today. Formed in the early 1930s, it was born in opposition to the Stalinised Communist Party, and was far to the left of the PCC.

It included in its constitution adherence to Marx and Lenin and called for the establishment of a Socialist Federation of Latin America.

Allende, although endorsing Marxism in many speeches, was not the left candidate for the PSC but was the party’s ‘compromise’ candidate for the presidency elections.

The UP victory followed a series of social upheavals which rocked Chile during the 1960s. The middle class was split with a section becoming increasingly radicalised.

This affected the centre-right capitalist party, the Christian Democrats (DC). A section eventually split and formed the Christian Left (IU) and the MAPU, which ended up in the UP and even on its ‘left-wing’.

UP reforms

Within weeks of forming the government, the UP introduced important reforms. Free school meals, higher wages and land reform began to be implemented.

The powerful copper mines, largely owned by US multinationals, were eventually nationalised, along with important sectors of the banking industry.

Plans were announced for the nationalisation of nearly 100 companies. By the time of the 1973 coup, over 40% of the economy was publicly owned.

From the beginning, the Chilean right wing and the military, together with US imperialism, began to plot the overthrow of the UP government.

Initially, they hoped that a policy of de-stabilisation and economic sabotage would be sufficient to undermine the new government and trigger its downfall.

US President Nixon’s orders were “to make the economy scream”. A trade embargo against Chile was established.

These forces of reaction financed armed terrorist attacks by the fascistic ‘Patria y Liberdad’, and a bosses’ lock-out was led by truck owners.

Allende won the election with 36.3% of the popular vote. The capitalist parties in the Congress allowed him to take the presidency, on a minority vote, because he fatally agreed to a constitutional pact that meant he was not to touch or interfere with the armed forces. This was to prove disastrous.

The ruling class hoped they could undermine Allende’s support and rally their supporters. At first, they attempted to do this ‘constitutionally’.

They used the Congress and Senate to block and disrupt the government. Eventually, they hoped to impeach Allende, for which they needed a two-thirds majority, but which they failed to obtain.

The undemocratic nature of the parliamentary system meant that the UP did not have a majority in either Congress or Senate.

However, electoral support for the UP not only consolidated but increased. Every attempt to undermine the government radicalised the working class, pushed the revolutionary process forward and increased electoral support for the government.

During the 1971 mayoral elections, UP candidates took over 51% of the vote. Even at the Congressional elections, in March 1973, the pro-capitalist parties hoped to win 66% of the vote and two-thirds of the seats, which would have been enough to impeach Allende.

They failed and the UP won over 44% of the vote – more than when Allende was first elected!

Role of working class

The working class consciously saw itself as the leading force in the revolution in Chile. It had built a series of powerful political and social organisations.

There was intense debate between the different organisations and parties, and also within them, about programme and strategy. The leaders were challenged and, on occasions, opposed by workers.

The election of a ‘Marxist’ president and government in Chile, and the leading role in the process of the working class, inspired the working class globally. It also opened a discussion on how to achieve socialism and the role of the state.

Every attempt at counter-revolution in Chile provoked a further radicalisation and mass mobilisation by the working class and its allies.

The bosses’ strike in 1972 led to the rapid growth of organisations in the industrial districts and the formation of the ‘cordones industriales’ (‘industrial belts’).

These were elected committees in the workplaces, which began to link up on a district and even a city-wide basis.

Delegates were elected and subject to recall. In the industrial city of Concepcion, in the south of Chile, they formed a city-wide Popular Assembly. Workers’ control was established in many workplaces throughout the country.

Food shortages and speculation caused by the embargo and sabotage of the bosses resulted in the formation of the JAPs – ‘peoples supply committees’ – which organised food distribution and tried to prevent speculation.

The cordones increasingly assumed a political role to advance and defend the revolution. One of the most radical was in the industrial district of Cerillos which, among many radical demands, called for “a Popular Assembly to replace the bourgeois parliament”.

The working class, were far to the left of the government and its leaders, both of which were dragged into taking more radical steps by the workers and youth.

In response to the armed attacks being unleashed by the fascistic Patria y liberdad, as the police and army stood by, workers’ defence squads were formed.

The revolution spread to the countryside, where farm workers and peasants occupied land and carried out a programme of agricultural reform. Over ten million acres of land were re-distributed.

Disarmed

The ruling class, in conjunction with US imperialism, began to rapidly develop plans for a military coup.

Yet, at every stage, the leaders of the PCC (Communist Party) and sections of the PSC (Socialist Party) acted as a brake and tried to hold back the revolutionary process, arguing that the “democratic” bourgeoisie must not be alienated and defended the “constitutionality” of the armed forces.

Despite using very left-wing revolutionary and Marxist rhetoric, the left of the Socialist Party failed to propose specific demands or initiatives to take the revolution forward and to overthrow capitalism, while plans were being laid for a reactionary military coup.

These developments led to a polarisation within the UP coalition and splits within its component parties, between the left and right.

Meanwhile, Henry Kissinger, US secretary of state in the Nixon administration, cabled the CIA chief in Santiago: “It is the firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup.”

In June 1973, sections of the military, from the tank regiments organised a rebellion against the government – the so-called ‘Tancazo’.

It was a premature putsch and was put down by the military, under orders from Allende. General Pratts, a supporter of Allende, who quelled the attempted uprising, was later murdered after the successful coup in September 1973.

The ‘Tancazo’, in June, acted as the whip of counter-revolution and provoked the working class to take further revolutionary measures.

It had the same effect as Spinola’s failed putsch, a few years later, in March 1975, during the Portuguese revolution.

In Chile, the failed June coup was followed by the announcement of a plan for massive nationalisations and by an increasing demand by the working class for arms to fight the threat of reaction.

Yet neither Allende nor the other leaders took steps to strike against the military or to mobilise and arm the workers.

Trade union rights were not given to the ranks of the army, no attempt was made to try and organise or to build support among the ranks of the armed forces, many of whom supported the revolutionary process.

The conditions existed to split the armed forces but decisive action was necessary. Yet the leaders of the UP were imprisoned by the idea, especially emphasised by the Communist Party, that a “progressive wing” existed among a section of the ruling class.

It had a policy of respecting “the constitutionality of the armed forces” and of a gradual measured step by step programme of reform that, eventually, would establish socialism.

In practice, this ‘stages theory’ allowed the ruling class time to prepare its forces to strike, when the moment was most opportune.

It resulted not in the avoidance of a civil war but in the drowning of the revolutionary movement in blood.

From the beginning, Allende left the state machine in the hands of the generals and reaction, without any challenge.

Allende adopted a policy of appeasement in a doomed attempt to reassure the military and ruling class.

He made Pinochet a cabinet minister and even Chief-of-Staff, following the forced resignation of General Pratts by pro-coup conspirators.

Moreover, when sections of the rank and file tried to come to the aid of the revolution and oppose a coup, Allende scandalously supported the pro-coup reactionary hierarchy.

In August, in the naval port of Valpariso, 100 sailors were arrested for “dereliction of military duty”.

In fact, they had discovered plans for the coup and declared they would oppose it. In what was referred to as his darkest hour, Allende, supported the hierarchy in the navy as it arrested and tortured this group of naval ratings!

Up to one million people demonstrated in front of the balcony of the Presidential Palace, where Allende stood, two days before the Pinochet coup.

These workers, youth and students, knowing of the impending coup, demanded arms to defend the revolution. They also demanded the closure of the bourgeois parliament.

The left-leaders of the PSC and others promised arms were being stashed and would be distributed when necessary.

In reality, nothing was done to arm the working class against bloody counter-revolution.

The coup

Two days later, the plotters struck, as the Chilean and US navies conducted joint exercises off the Chilean coast.

On the day of the coup, the trade union federation, the CUT, called on workers to go to the factories and await instructions.

In Chile in September 1973, a mass armed protest and clear appeal for the soldiers to join the revolution was the only prospect at this late stage to save the revolution and defeat the coup.

Instead, as the coup unfolded, workers were left isolated in their factories, waiting to be picked off by armed detachments of the army.

Once in power, the military unleashed a bloody era of repression and slaughter. It was a ruthless clinical operation which targeted the most politically conscious and active workers and youth. The military regime lasted until 1990.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party did not learn from the lessons of this bloody defeat.

With the collapse of the former Stalinist regimes and planned economies, they abandoned any defence of socialist ideas and formed yet more alliances with what they regard as ‘progressive’ sections of the Chilean ruling class.

Since the end of the military rule and ‘transition’, the PSC has been in an alliance with the Christian Democracy and ruled in the governing coalition, Concertacion.

In government, the PSC continued with the policies of privatisation and neoliberalism.

The Communist Party has tried to act as a ‘left’ adviser to the Concertacion coalition, hanging onto its coat tails, desperate to try and secure a few parliamentary seats, as a reward.

Chilean model

The Chilean economy has been held up as a model throughout Latin America and globally. However, despite growth, based on a high and rising price of copper, Chile has also become one of the most unequal societies in Latin America. This has resulted in an increasingly explosive social situation.

At the same time, successive Concertacion governments have only acted to defend the interests of the rich, resulting in growing political alienation from all the political institutions bequeathed by the dictatorship.

In the absence of any alternative, dissatisfaction with the Concertacion resulted in the victory of the right-wing coalition in 2010 headed by the billionaire, Sabastian Pinera. His elder brother was a minister under Pinochet.

The Pinera presidential election victory acted as a whip of counter revolution and unleashed all of the frustration and alienation which has been accumulating for the last 20 years.

A new generation has exploded into struggle, marking the end of the so-called ‘stability’ boasted of by the Chilean ruling class since the end of the military dictatorship.

Mass student protests demanding a free and decent education system have rocked Chilean society since 2011.

Pinera, according to opinion polls, was the least popular Chilean leader since Augusto Pinochet.

Copper workers called a one-day strike with the support of the students. Significantly, this strike was called on 11 July 2011 – the same day Allende nationalised the copper industry.

The students looked towards the workers and organised rallies and protests in support of the copper workers.

Yet the union leadership dissuaded workers from attending such rallies. Nonetheless, the CUT union federation was compelled to call a two-day general strike on 24 and 25 August.

However, this opportunity was squandered by the leadership of the CUT, who have acted as an appendage of the Concertacion.

An organised force, a new political party, which can channel the determination of the new generation to fight for a change and has learnt the lessons of the previous struggles, is posed objectively in the struggle and in the crisis which is developing.

New class battles loom in Chile. Remembering the first 9/11 and drawing the lessons from this bloody defeat, can assist the new generation to prepare for class struggles to be fought and also prepare the way to overthrow the capitalist system and usher in a genuine democratic socialist alternative.

]]>Britain: Tories in tatters – Corbyn must seize the time!https://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/07/britain-tories-in-tatters-corbyn-must-seize-the-time/
Sat, 07 Sep 2019 05:32:32 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15334The British Conservative Party, once among the most successful capitalist parties on the planet, are shattering into pieces before our eyes. The Tory party’s weakness and splits are far from new. Now, however, quantity has [...]

]]>The British Conservative Party, once among the most successful capitalist parties on the planet, are shattering into pieces before our eyes.

The Tory party’s weakness and splits are far from new. Now, however, quantity has turned into quality and, under the leadership of Boris Johnson, the relatively slow inglorious decline of the Tories has become an unprecedented collapse.

In two days, Johnson has become the first prime minister since 1894 to lose his first parliamentary vote, and has transformed his majority of one into minus 43 by sacking 21 rebels – including the grandson of Winston Churchill and a host of other Tory grandees.

He is left suspended in mid-air unable to govern, with a general election as his only option.

For the millions of working and middle class people who have suffered a relentless diet of Tory austerity for over a decade, the implosion of the government is a reason to cheer.

At this stage, this is not the reaction of many, however. No wonder. While there is a huge crisis of political representation for the capitalist elite – with no major party reliably representing their interests – there also remains a crisis of political representation for the working class.

Many workers trying to follow the chaotic machinations at Westminster over recent days will have concluded that no one is speaking for them.

Among some there is even the hope that the Tory toff, Johnson – who is cynically posing as standing with people against parliament – could represent a means to hit back against the Establishment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. But the only way to cut across his right-wing populist rhetoric is to put a clear programme in the interests of the working class.

In the last snap election, Jeremy Corbyn was able to enthuse millions of workers and young people. Labour gained 3.5 million votes, including a million who had previously voted Ukip.

The potential still exists for him to build on this and win the next election, perhaps even by a landslide, provided that he stands on a socialist platform that offers the working and middle class a real alternative to austerity.

Labour: two parties in one

Unfortunately, however, Labour is not a workers’ party, but what we have described as ‘two parties in one’ – a potential workers’ party around Jeremy Corbyn, alongside a pro-capitalist wing which dominates the parliamentary Labour Party and local council chambers.

At every stage the Corbyn wing has been prepared to make concessions to the pro-capitalists in the vain hope of pacifying them.

The inevitable result is the – at best – muffling of Corbyn’s anti-austerity programme and, at worst, workers seeing Labour as no different to the major parties of the capitalist establishment.

Now, as the parliamentary crisis has reached boiling point, the weaknesses of the approach taken by the Corbyn wing of the Labour Party are being shown in high relief.

The capitalist class are in a panic. Johnson’s preparedness to risk a chaotic Brexit, with the economic disruption it would create, is horrifying the majority of the elite. As is his willingness to further undermine the institutions of British capitalism, leaving them with less authority to act against more serious threats to their interests – most importantly a socialist government with mass support.

Faced with this crisis, more far-sighted representatives of capitalism have made impassioned appeals to MPs to defend the interests of their system.

The Financial Times editorial, on 29 August, for example, declared that “parliamentarians must seize their opportunity … to assert the will of the Commons against the prime minister” despite the consequences of splitting the Tory party and risking a Jeremy Corbyn-led government.

In the course of this week, MPs from every party have responded to this plea. This has been done under the banner of the ‘national interest’ of preventing a no-deal Brexit.

Of course, many working and middle class people will welcome attempts to avoid a no-deal Brexit, fearing the potential consequences for jobs and economic security. Nonetheless, it is a serious mistake by the Labour leadership to foster the idea that there is a common ‘national interest’ between representatives of the capitalist elite and the working class majority.

They are, of course, right to describe Johnson as a liar that cannot be trusted, but it is outrageous – as numerous Labour MPs have done – to contrast him to previous ‘trustworthy’ Tory prime ministers like Theresa May! Ken Clarke, now being portrayed as some kind of friend of the people, was a Tory minister throughout the whole of Thatcher’s prime ministership, responsible for countless crimes against the working class – including introducing the first major steps to privatisation in the NHS.

The Liberal Democrats, now being joined by various ex-Labour and ex-Tory MPs, took part in the Con-Dem coalition government, which carried out the most savage austerity since the second world war.

By joining in with the narrative of parliament’s ‘rebel alliance’ – supposedly uniting together for the national interest against the monster Johnson – Labour is in danger of helping Johnson create the illusion that he is the one standing up to the establishment.

Capitalism rotten

The ongoing implosion of the Tory Party is not an accident. It flows from the crisis-ridden, rotten character of capitalism today, which ultimately results in the undermining of the social basis of all parties that act in its interests.

With capitalism offering a diet of stagnating or worsening living standards, politicians like Johnson attempt to use right-wing populist rhetoric in order to mobilise popular support.

The only force that can effectively counter this is an independent workers’ movement, armed with a socialist programme.

The road to disaster is for leaders of the workers’ movement, under the banner of stopping right-wing populism, to unite with representatives of the capitalist establishment.

And, of course, much of the so-called rebel alliance has two goals, not only stopping Johnson, but also stopping Corbyn.

The week’s parliamentary manoeuvres have centred on the relationship between stopping a no-deal Brexit and having a general election.

Terrified of giving Corbyn any authority, pro-remain pro-capitalist MPs in all parties dismissed Corbyn’s proposal that would have guaranteed both – backing a vote of no confidence and allowing him to lead a minority government that would then extend article 50 while an election took place.

Instead they took the route of trying to implement legislation, not to remove Johnson but to tie his hands.

Now it is clear that the pro-capitalist wing of the Labour Party is arguing that even once the legislation is passed, Labour should not support an early general election.

The publicly stated grounds for this are that Johnson should not be allowed to choose the timing of an election but should instead be made to stay in power.

This is a bizarre argument. Having spent a week enacting legislation to try to control Johnson’s options on Brexit, they then want to refuse the chance to get him out of power, in time for Labour to take control of Brexit negotiations.

Lying behind these contortions are two factors – from some on the left a fear that they could not win an election, and from the right, continuing attempts to prevent a Jeremy Corbyn-led government coming to power.

The only way to prevent a general election in the near future would be for the formation of some kind of ‘national government’, probably posed as a temporary measure to ‘resolve Brexit’.

Such an attempt would be very dangerous for the capitalist class. The working-class vote for Brexit in 2016 represented, at base, an elemental revolt against capitalist austerity. An unelected ‘remain’ national government trying to reverse the 2016 result would enormously fuel that anger.

Provided the Corbyn-wing of the Labour Party stood firm against such a move, it would also mean that the right of the Labour Party splitting to join such a national government would then leave Labour in the hands of the left, standing in opposition to a deeply unpopular government.

General election

A general election is, therefore, the most likely outcome of the current situation whatever happens in the next few days of parliamentary drama.

Corbyn, however, needs to urgently make sure his manoeuvres in parliament are to get a quick general election and, vitally, to start to put a clear position in the interests of the working class, attacking the policies of all the pro-capitalist politicians in Westminster, both those in the rebel alliance and in the government. On that basis he can win a general election decisively.

That includes making it clear that Labour should not be the ‘remain’ party, but the party of the working class – both those who voted remain and leave.

Corbyn should be putting forward a confident position that he would renegotiate Brexit from an entirely different standpoint to that of the Tories.

His ‘red lines’ would be the removal of all legislation that undermines workers’ rights and blocks state aid and nationalisation.

The rights of people in Britain from other EU countries would be guaranteed. On this basis Corbyn could make an appeal for solidarity, over the heads of the EU’s governments, to working-class people across the EU, putting a Corbyn-led government in a far more powerful position to negotiate than the Tories.

Having negotiated such a deal it would not be wrong to put it to a confirmatory vote but Corbyn should be energetically arguing in favour of that deal, rather than the alternative of continuing as part of the pro-capitalist EU.

Such an approach would be one aspect of a socialist programme. Other aspects would include insisting that all companies threatening redundancies or closures – whether on the grounds of Brexit or otherwise – immediately open their books to workers’ inspection and, where necessary, nationalise them under democratic working-class control and management.

Immediate measures like mass council house building, a £10 an hour minimum wage and free education would need to be combined with a programme for the nationalisation of the major corporations and banks to really take the levers of power out of the hands of the capitalist saboteurs that would otherwise do all in their power to prevent the implementation of pro-working class policies.

The political situation in Britain is highly unstable and unpredictable. The tasks of the workers’ movement are urgent.

The TUC is meeting this weekend. Left unions should demand it sets the date for a mass demonstration as the first step to getting the Tories out and the coming to power of a Corbyn-led government with a socialist programme.

]]>West Papua: Mass demonstrations erupt against Indonesian repressionhttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/06/west-papua-mass-demonstrations-erupt-against-indonesian-repression/
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 14:47:53 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15329The Indonesian government has sent more than 3,700 police and military forces into West Papua following nearly three weeks of protests and mass demonstrations in the region. These were triggered when the Indonesian National Army [...]

]]>The Indonesian government has sent more than 3,700 police and military forces into West Papua following nearly three weeks of protests and mass demonstrations in the region. These were triggered when the Indonesian National Army (TNI) and right-wing vigilantes targeted several Papuan students in Surabaya in East Java, after allegations that they tried to destroy a flagpole flying the national flag during celebrations for Indonesia’s Independence Day on 17 August.

Forty three students were arrested after tear gas was fired into their dormitories by paramilitary Islamic organisations, alongside police. They chanted vile racist slurs against the ethnic Papuan students, labelling them “monkeys”, “drunks” and “womanisers”.

The internet was suspended by the central government and the situation remains tense. Mass protests are spreading across Papua even reaching the Indonesian capital Jakarta and the island of Bali. Journalists and activists involved in the struggle of the Papuan people report that these have been the largest mass protests and demonstrations in the region for decades.

The origins of oppression in Papua

The island of New Guinea, situated in Oceania, and rich in minerals, raw materials and natural resources, has been fought over by rival imperialisms for decades. The eastern half of the island achieved its independence in 1975, becoming Papua New Guinea.

Dutch imperialism finally relinquished its colonial rule over the western side of the island (then known as West New Guinea) in 1962, transferring the territory to Indonesian control. The deal included a provision that within seven years the Papuan people should be permitted to vote on whether they wished to pursue self-determination, i.e. become an independent state or stay under the rule of Indonesia.

The ironically named, Act of Free Choice, took place in August 1969, and was a grotesque caricature of a democratic vote. Just 1,025 West Papuans were chosen by Jakarta and coerced at gunpoint to vote the ‘right way’. This sham referendum involved the participation of less than 0.2% of the population, but sought to obtain international legitimacy for Indonesia’s rule. The United Nations noted the result in Resolution 2504 and expressing a mere squeak of protest about the abusive procedure.

Indonesia subsequently declared that these two western provinces, which lie more than 4,000km from Jakarta, were to be known as Irian Jaya. But in 2003 it was renamed Papua and West Papua and granted a largely illusory semi-autonomous status.

Indonesia maintains that Papua has self-governance rights through this special autonomy status and democratically elected leaders who participate in the Indonesian political system. The regime asserts that in the 2019 elections, the turn-out in the province of Papua and West Papua was 88%, with 94% being in favour of president Jokowi’s administration. According to Indonesia, this reflected the contentment of the Papuan masses with its support for their political aspirations and trust in Jakarta’s democratic credentials!

Resources

Almost the size of Spain, West Papua possesses huge areas of rainforest and is rich in gold, copper, timber and natural gas. Foreign, multinational and national capitalists favoured autocratic rule in Indonesia under the previous dictatorship of Suharto (1967-1998). They continue to exploit the natural resources in Papua through the Indonesian military power. Here, as everywhere else, imperialism is incapable of bringing economic and social benefits to the masses.

Any liberation struggle by the Papuan population that could complicate the process of this exploitation is evaded by stuffing millions of US dollars into the Indonesian political structure and by lobbying for the occupation to continue. Both indigenous and international capitalists are major contributors to ensuring that the working class and poor peasants are not free to decide their own economic matters, which include the management of highly profitable natural resources.

The Grassberg mine, owned by the US Freeport Company, began operating two years before the 1969 New York treaty and before the Indonesian government’s forced occupation of Papua. It has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards the costs of the Indonesian army’s operation. Freeport, which owns the world’s largest gold mine and the world’s third-largest copper mine, is also Indonesia’s largest taxpayer and has maintained close ties with the government.

Apart from mining companies like Freeport, many other giant natural gas companies from the UK, Canada, Sweden, Norway and Japan have exploited Papua’s resources for corporate profit. British Petroleum recently announced a giant liquid natural gas (LNG) project which is producing over 7.6 million metric tons of LNG a year in Tangguh, West Papua. Efforts to double the volume of this production have already begun.

In recent years, a number of Indonesian giant corporations have started to own and invest in the mines and the natural gas rigs in Papua. But the billions of dollars of profit produced are enjoyed only by the wealthy capitalists and business owners. Part of this profit is also spent on military operations and other government apparatus, which, in return, guarantees a smooth ride for these giant companies.

The resulting profits from the Papua region are the main cause for violent actions by the Indonesian authorities over any movement demanding national liberation and the right for self- determination by the people.

Oppression of the people of Papua

Papua is bursting with natural resources, but is Indonesia’s poorest region. The poor live in abysmal conditions, struggling to survive. Toxic waste is dumped by giant corporations that destroy the environment, undermining health and livelihoods. Massive deforestation and uncontrolled mining creates enormous levels of pollution.

Even before the recent outbreak of struggle, Indonesian government oppression over Papua has increased in recent times. According to one report, nearly 6,400 people were detained as political prisoners, in 2016, alone, many being brutally tortured. Thousands more have been detained and harmed in the ongoing demonstrations. The people of Papua have continually been subjected to severe persecution and have suffered racist attacks from right-wing nationalist organisations that support the Indonesian ruling class.

The incident which sparked the mass demonstration by the Papuan masses not only reflects anger against oppression and racism. It also signals the aspirations of the people to fight for their right to manage their own economic and political affairs.

Papuans have long understood that the Indonesian government is a willing collaborator in the free market and capitalist imperialism. The regime operates exclusively for the benefit of the rich capitalists and not for the good of the common people.

On 19 August, demonstrators took to the streets in Jayapura and after that the movement quickly spread to the towns of Manokwari, Fakfak, Timika and Nabire. Young demonstrators held signs with messages, such as: “Papua merdeka, itu yang monyet inginkan,” or “Free Papua, this is what the ‘monkeys’ want.”

By 26 August, thousands of protesters had taken to the streets in the highland areas of West Papua. By the end of the month, demonstrations had taken hold in almost 30 cities inside and outside West Papua.

Protesters have been beaten and jailed and there have been persistent allegations of the authorities using the banned chemical weapon white phosphorous against civilians.

Just as in previous conflicts, the Indonesian Army has attacked protestors in the streets violently and mercilessly. The ‘morning star’ flag, a symbol of Papua’s national struggle, has been banned and many activists who have flown the flag have been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Nevertheless, protesters from all over Indonesia have launched mass protests by waving the flag and chanting the slogan ‘we are not red and white’ (Indonesian flag colour), voicing their protest against the Indonesian occupation of Papua.

There have been reports of a rally of 5,000 people around the city of Timika, near the Freeport gold and copper mine. According to eye witnesses, demonstrators threw rocks at the local parliament building and tried to tear down its fence.

Emphasising its hard-line approach to putting down the protests, Chief Security Minister, Wiranto, warned against international political interference, restating that “Developments in Papua and West Papua province are purely Indonesia’s internal affairs. No other country, organisation or individual has the right to interfere in them. We firmly oppose the intervention of Indonesia’s internal affairs in whatever form.”

Simultaneously and in a classic demonstration of using the ‘carrot and stick’ approach, President Joko Widodo urges restraint. He begs people to forgive each other “as fellow countrymen” instead of getting angry, while pledging to look after the “honour and welfare of all people in Papua and West Papua”. “My brothers and sisters in Papua and West Papua, I know you feel offended,” he soothes. “It’s okay to be emotional, but it’s better to be forgiving. Patience is also better.”

Due to the internet shutdown across the remote provinces, it is hard to verify what is currently happening. But the statement from Widodo that calm has been restored is clearly a lie aimed at disheartening the activists and reassuring international capital.

The struggle for the right to self-determination

In the last 50 years, nearly 500,000 people were killed by state military violence while struggling for the right of self-determination from Indonesia.

The indigenous population of West Papua are Melanesian, ethnically distinct from most of the rest of Indonesia. They are more closely linked to the people of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia.

In 2017, an illegal petition that called for an end to Indonesian annexation and full independence for West Papua was signed by 1.8 million people (about 70% of the Papuan population). It was secretly transported around the provinces and eventually it was presented to the UN’s decolonisation committee, and the human rights commissioner.

At the recently held Pacific Islands Forum, Benny Wenda, the exiled leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), sought support among the representatives for a re-examination of the 1969 Act of Free Choice that legitimised Indonesia’s rule over Papua.

Explaining that “We have never exercised our right to self-determination that has been denied us. We are not seeking violence, we seek our rights peacefully, to decide for ourselves our future”, Wenda asserted, “Papuans will not stop fighting until we achieve equality, self-determination and a referendum on independence.”

Other Pacific nations, particularly Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, which share Melanesian ethnicity, are supportive of West Papuan Independence. The Australian capitalist class remains resolutely opposed and upholds Indonesia’s right to rule over the province. This reflects its fears that independence would endanger Australia’s economic interests and destabilise geo-political relations in the area.

There can be no trust placed in rival imperialist powers, nor their servant, the United Nations, to resolve the national question in West Papua. Intergovernmental bodies, such as the UN, are easily swayed by the interest of the free market. They have ignored the ongoing human rights abuses in Papua for decades.

Various NGOs and human rights organisations have filed petitions containing millions of signatures on numerous occasions, only to have their humanitarian appeals continually rejected. This exposes the weaknesses and failures of NGOs that limit their efforts to find solutions only through global institutions controlled by the capitalists.

Through its arbitrary arrests and military operations, Jakarta seeks to cow the masses into submission. Simultaneously, through migrating other non-Papuan Indonesians to the province to alter its ethnic make-up, it is attempting to alter the ethnic and religious composition of Papua. Wenda warns this is a form of “slow-motion genocide”.

A free Papua cannot be established under the existing capitalist system that is based on the interests of the super-rich exploiters. It is necessary to fully support the struggle of the people of Papua to determine their own destiny and struggle alongside them in ensuring that their dreams are fulfilled after they gain their independence.

Marxists recognise, however, that an independent Papuan government would only be sustainable if it was prepared to resist the pressure of international capital and adopt socialist economic planning measures to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth. Such a government of workers and peasants would rule through a democratically accountable system, based on workers’ control and management of state-owned resources. Such a regime would need to reach out to Indonesian workers and workers across Asia and beyond, with a class appeal of solidarity and internationalism.

Indonesia’s government also oppresses millions of Indonesian working class and poor people by leaving the country’s economic management under the control of domestic and foreign capitalists. The struggle of the people of Papua to determine their own fate should be viewed by Indonesian leftists and working class fighters as a class struggle. This necessitates standing up to the same enemy of all oppressed people – capitalists who are hiding behind politicians like Jokowi or Prabowo.

Industrial actions, like the general strike, can have a profound impact on foreign and local capitalists and weaken their grip on Papua. The organised action of the working class and the masses has the power to not only undermine the national economy. At the same time workers action also undermine the existing government and also gain support from the working class of Indonesia and around the world.

Mass actions involving organised working class will provide the experience and awareness for millions of workers about class unity and its role in the social movements. The organised working class that has control over production is the only social class capable of establishing a government that truly represents the interests of the people.

A socialist alternative

Socialism is the only solution that can solve the problems facing the people of Papua who are trapped within the economic framework of capitalism. However, the struggle for socialism requires a leadership with clear direction, able to build support through socialist programmes that uphold the aspirations of the oppressed, and secure democratic values that gives working people the opportunity to participate in politics.

The masses involved in social movements need a clear leadership to find a solution. Millions of working class and working people exposed to the reality of life under the capitalist system will be excited by the idea of a socialist economy. It will bring large production centres, such as mines, factories and oilfields, under public ownership, which will be democratically controlled by the working class and the oppressed majority.

By taking ownership of all the natural resources and the economic tools from the control of giant companies owned by a small number of individuals, the value added in social production by the working class can be used to enhance the social welfare of the majority.

If Papua’s working class manages to bring about a planned economy under democratic control of the common people, this will not only impact upon the working class struggle from the ASEAN region, but will have international reverberations.

Workers are the victim of the economic crisis, which occurs without their involvement or control, and is caused by capitalists who adore the free market system. Millions of poor people have to bear the burden of recessions through debt, poverty and unemployment, while capitalists seek ways to increase their wealth through ever-deeper methods of exploitation.

To bring about socialism, the existence of a revolutionary organisation is very important. The party must recognise that the working class is the only revolutionary class capable of leading the whole community towards social change. Therefore, a revolutionary organisation should always try to build a working-class leadership that can consciously oppose the capitalist system to achieve socialism.

Although the organised working class already exists in large numbers in Papua and Indonesia, no political leadership has been able to unite them to struggle towards a systemic change with a clear socialist programme. The Democratic People’s Party (PRD), which played a key role in overthrowing Suharto’s dictatorship, has sunk into parliamentary politics and failed to maintain any support from the working class. Existing trade union leaders do not show any political clarity and simply limit their attention to the welfare of their respective members’ work-related demands.

Young people and the working class in Indonesia and in Papua, who are conscious of the need for a socialist alternative, must immediately establish a revolutionary organisation based on the struggle of the working class. A mass party comprised of organised workers and local community organisations should be built with a strong socialist programme.

We call for:

We support the struggle of the people of Papua for their right of self- determination. We also demand that the violence of the authorities against the struggling Papua people should be stopped, immediately. All members of the Indonesian National Army and Indonesian government authorities should be withdrawn from Papua. We also call on all working-class organisations, youth groups and left-wing organisations to raise the issue of Papua and protest against the oppression the masses face.

Support the right of the people of Papua to govern independently, under the control of the people and workers’ democratically.

Withdraw military powers stationed in West Papua, which are oppressing progressive movements of the working class, the youth and social activists.

Call on the people not to be seduced by racial or religious divisions and to stand in solidarity with any civilian, student and activist community in the struggle for the right to self-determination of the people of Papua

Call on trade unions and workers from both Papua and Indonesia, as well as Southeast Asia and internationally, to stand in solidarity with the struggle of the people of Papua.

Prepare strikes and mass movements to weaken the capitalists and the Indonesian government power in Papua.

Fight for a socialist alternative for the people of Papua and Indonesia, to break free from the shackles of oppressive capitalism and to establish a confederation of socialism in Southeast Asia and internationally.

]]>Britain: Tories in meltdown – Bold offensive for Corbyn-led Labour government with socialist policieshttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/05/britain-tories-in-meltdown-bold-offensive-needed-to-fight-for-corbyn-led-labour-government/
Thu, 05 Sep 2019 14:21:45 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15317This editorial was written at the start of a week which promised one of the biggest battles in parliament ever – a major showdown between parliament and the prime minister. Since the following editorial was [...]

]]>This editorial was written at the start of a week which promised one of the biggest battles in parliament ever – a major showdown between parliament and the prime minister. Since the following editorial was published, Tory Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, suffered humiliating defeats in Westminster parliament votes on Brexit, and he went on to expel over 20 ‘rebel’ Tory MPs from his party.

Socialistworld.net

Boris Johnson threw down the gauntlet when he imposed – backed up by the constitutional power of the unelected monarchy – the longest suspension of parliament in modern times.

This attempt to head off opposition to his Brexit plans came not from a position of strength but one of great weakness and precarity. His government has a majority of only one and his party’s MPs are attacking each other relentlessly.

The major divisions at the top under Theresa May continued from the outset in Johnson’s new cabinet – most of whom he didn’t even tell in advance of his move to prorogue parliament.

He even appears to have fallen out with his chosen chancellor, Sajid Javid, not helped when Javid’s media aide was suddenly sacked by Johnson’s advisor Dominic Cummings and escorted from her office by an armed police officer.

The precarity extends to Johnson himself. Faced with a significant rebellion from Tory MPs in parliament, attempting to thwart a no deal Brexit, he has felt compelled to threaten a general election on 14 October.

The sooner the better! This must be the urgent message of the trade union movement.

Tories out – no delay

Workers, young people, people struggling to get by on benefits or pensions, all need the opportunity to kick out the Tories without delay and vote in a Jeremy Corbyn-led government and much needed socialist policies.

The surest way to stop a no-deal Brexit was Corbyn’s plan of moving a no confidence vote and then leading a caretaker government which would ask for an extension of Article 50 and then move to a general election. This should have been backed up by a call from Corbyn for mass extra parliamentary protests by working-class people .

It’s a sign of the degree of panic in ruling-class circles that, despite their fear of Corbyn gaining authority as leader of a temporary government, voices were emerging in the capitalist media which reluctantly advocated that scenario.

Among them was the Financial Times (FT), which in an editorial on 29 August said: “Ousting Mr Johnson in time to affect the Brexit process may also require the creation of a caretaker government under Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.”

In Sunday’s Observer newspaper, the paper’s former editor, Will Hutton, admitted that Corbyn’s proposed interim government was the “only surefire way to stop a no-deal Brexit”, but Hutton cautioned that Corbyn should “introduce no new policies”!

Instead of adopting Corbyn’s proposals, however, the ‘rebel alliance’ decided to attempt a legislative route: seize control of the parliamentary order of business – aided by the expected defying of precedent by the Speaker of parliament – and create legislation to force Johnson if necessary to extend Article 50, i.e. postpone the 31 October withdrawal if there is still no deal with the EU by then.

Corbyn’s mistaken acquiescence to this approach has fed the false idea that the working class has some kind of common ‘national interest’ with pro-capitalist politicians, including on the Labour right, who are desperate to avoid a general election – because it might lead to Corbyn coming to power! He now needs to clearly put the fight for a general election central.

Johnson was considering ways of stopping the progress of a new law, or ignoring it if passed, or even trying to engineer a veto at EU level of an extension to Article 50. But he finally decided to challenge Tory rebel MPs with the threat of a snap election.

At the same time, he declared they will have the Tory whip removed and be deselected as election candidates if they vote against the government.

The Socialist has long been urging Corbyn to decisively move against Labour MPs who vote in opposition to policies which can aid the transformation of Labour in a socialist direction – by forcing them to face reselection contests. This prospect is regarded as beyond the pale by Labour’s Blairite MPs, backed by other pro-capitalist MPs and the capitalist establishment.

Deselection

The fact that this action is now being imposed by the present group at the top of the Tory party – historically the main party of British capitalism – should serve to spur on trade unionists and other workers to firmly reject all hypocritical howls aimed against deselection. In the labour movement this should be done on a democratic basis – asserting the will of the rank-and-file majority over their representatives.

This is not to say, though, that the capitalist class overall supports Johnson’s actions.

Much of big business is clearly alarmed and some enraged or in despair as the disruption of a no deal Brexit looms ever larger. The lengthy prorogation of parliament was described as an “act of constitutional vandalism” by the FT.

The FT also expressed angst about what Johnson is doing to the reputation of western capitalist democracy, saying: “If Mr Johnson’s prorogation ploy succeeds, Britain will forfeit any right to lecture other countries on their democratic shortcomings.”

Democracy

While democratic rights in capitalist society have been hard-won and must be defended, for the ruling class ‘democracy’ has always, in reality, been one of the tools it uses to help obscure from view its power to rule in its own class interests.

It bears no relation to what genuine democracy would be like in a socialist society. Capitalist media, like the FT, are warning about the consequences of more exposure of the limits of capitalist institutions and democracy, which have already faced growing levels of mistrust and disillusionment.

A vast number of different scenarios are still possible between now and the 31 October withdrawal date, such is the extreme volatility of this prolonged crisis faced by British capitalism.

Johnson, on his part, in a right-wing populist manner portrays himself as ‘with the people’, and in conflict with the divided parliament and the capitalist establishment. A YouGov poll taken after his prorogation move showed a slight majority of Tory voters and Leave voters viewing his action as acceptable.

However, this Eton-educated millionaire has only an eleventh hour, mark two, Tory-negotiated Brexit deal possibly on offer, or alternatively a ‘no deal’ Brexit, neither of which will in reality satisfy the millions of working-class Leave voters, when the aftermath is arrived at.

Corbyn has rightly warned again this week that, given the chance, Johnson’s government will enter into race-to-the-bottom free market trade deals that will only benefit big business.

The spending promises being announced this week are clearly aimed at trying to win the coming election not at genuinely addressing people’s needs. Then afterwards, if they win, the Tories would turn back to inflicting austerity.

Preparation is therefore urgent in the workers’ movement, not just for ensuring an immediate general election and the election of a Corbyn-led government, but for the vital period after that, when all cuts must be reversed and living standards for working-class and middle-class people set on a path of rapid improvement.

This would need to include Corbyn negotiating an exit deal with the EU from the standpoint of working-class interests.

Counter ‘Boris bounce’

The ‘Boris bounce’ has put the Tories ahead for now in the opinion polls. But if Corbyn were to dynamically campaign on his programme of ending austerity, reversing benefit cuts, abolishing universal credit, building social housing, scrapping tuition fees, extending workers’ rights and nationalising gas, electricity, rail and Royal Mail, it would be possible to once again overturn the Tories’ lead and this time win a general election.

Calls by Momentum leaders for the holding of rallies and the blocking of roads are grossly insufficient and no substitute for a big mobilisation of the organised workers’ movement – the six million workers in trade unions – for a general election and a Corbyn-led government.

Corbyn and the left trade union leaders have a vital role to play, which cannot be just responding to ongoing events and waiting for the government to collapse.

A bold offensive is needed, firstly by the TUC naming the day for a huge mass demonstration of trade unionists, drawing in the millions of others who will benefit from socialist policies.

Then building and escalating that movement and basing it on democratic discussion and decision-making at rank-and-file level in the trade unions and in a Labour Party being transformed in a socialist direction.

Leaders must be accountable to those who elect them, including MPs in Parliament who should only take the wage of a worker. All of this would mean the right kind of preparation is underway.

]]>Socialist Party of Nigeria condemns xenophobic attacks in South Africahttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/05/spn-condemns-xenophobic-attacks-in-south-africa/
Thu, 05 Sep 2019 09:56:43 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15304* SPN calls on the Buhari/APC Government to Provide Decent Jobs and Better Life in order to Curb Desperate Migration * SPN calls for the Unity of Nigerian and South African Working Masses to end [...]

]]>* SPN calls on the Buhari/APC Government to Provide Decent Jobs and Better Life in order to Curb Desperate Migration

* SPN calls for the Unity of Nigerian and South African Working Masses to end Capitalism and Enthrone Socialism in both Countries and the African Continent

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) hereby condemns the raging xenophobic attacks in South Africa which has affected Nigerians alongside other African migrants in South Africa. Some have been killed and many injured while shops have been destroyed and looted in the recurrent violence. Reprisal or retributive actions in South Africa and possibly in Nigeria and elsewhere can further worsen the cycle of violence.

There have been reports of the South African police supporting the violence or looking the other way. Tragically also, there does not appear to have been any effective measures so far taken by the Nigerian government through its High Commission and Consulate in South Africa to safeguard Nigerians and provide succour to victims of the violence. This is inspite of the much publicised meeting of both countries’ leaders recently on the side-lines of the TAICAD conference in Japan where they both mouthed commitment to ending the recurrent violence.

CAPITALIST RULING ELITES OF BOTH COUNTRIES ARE GUILTY

The SPN condemns the Cyril Ramaphosa/ANC government in South Africa and the Buhari/APC government in Nigeria for their lip-service towards protecting the lives and properties of Nigerian migrants and other African nationals from attacks. At the same time, we recognise that there can be no trust in either governments to take any effective action. This is because, regardless of their phoney outrage at the attacks, apart from the fact that they have a whole lot to benefit from the division and disunity of the working masses of both countries, they are also responsible for the problems that are driving this violence.

First, it is the ruinous anti-poor policies of all capitalist governments in Nigeria since independence and particularly since 1999 that is responsible for the collapse in living standards and absolute lack of decent jobs and opportunity which is forcing layers of the working class, middle class and youth in Nigeria to run out of the country in pursuit of greener pasture. Particularly since 2015 when the Buhari APC government came into power under a slogan of change, the fortunes of the country has further plummeted as a result of the regime’s implementation of capitalist policies which has further driven down employment, increased job losses and deprivation for the vast majority. While consequently Nigeria has effectively become the poverty capital of the world, the other side of the coin is that at the same Nigeria is home to the richest back person from Africa. Suffice to add that this paradox actually defines the real nature and character of the capitalist system as an unjust and inequitable system. This means that running out of the country has now become the only option open to many to escape the crisis. A majority of Nigerian immigrants in South Africa, Europe and America are escapees from the hellish conditions of poverty, lack of jobs and opportunity as well as the daily insecurity and violence in Nigeria. While the world is focused on the xenophobic attacks in South Africa at the moment, thousands more of Nigerians and African nationals are trekking through the Sahara desert and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in the hope of reaching European shores.

In a similar vein, it is the ruinous anti-poor policies of decades of post-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) governments that is responsible for the inequality and mass poverty that grips the mass majority of the black South African populace. After 25 years of self-government, all the hope and aspiration of the black population has been shattered with the ANC becoming a tool for the implementation of anti-poor capitalist policies which has created a new black capitalist elite while driving the mass majority of blacks further down the ladder. The Cyril Ramaphosa ANC government is simply a continuation of the ruinous past, only the clique at the top has changed. As a result of the despair and desperation and with a South African labour leadership not mounting an effective struggle to unite the working class and find a lasting way out of the crisis, the poorest sections and potentially even layers of the workers and middle classes of the South African population are being led erroneously to believe that African nationals including Nigerians are responsible for their plight.

This is much like we saw happen first in Ghana in 1969 when Nigerians were forcefully expelled from Ghana and secondly in Nigeria in 1983 during the infamous “Ghana must go” episode following the end of the oil boom of the 70s. Over two million Ghanaians and other African nationals were forcefully expelled by the Shagari government then – something which shows how the ruling elite often fan embers of division in order to turn attention of the masses away from the real causes of their misery.

NO TO DIVISION! DEFEAT XENOPHOBIA WITH SOLIDARITY!

All the above therefore means that in the real sense of the word, the poor South African workers and youth who are involved in these xenophobic attacks as well as the Nigerian and other African migrants who are being attacked are victims of the same conditions of capitalism. For us in the SPN therefore, the only way out is for a united struggle of the working classes of both countries to challenge and defeat their capitalist ruling classes and enthrone a workers-led government armed with socialist policies.

South Africa’s economy and Nigeria’s economy are big enough to provide a decent and happier life for a majority of their populations. Officially about 40% of South Africans of working age are either unemployed or have given up looking for work. Over 60% of Black South Africans live in poverty, 25 years after the end of the Apartheid regime was meant to have brought equality. But the end of Apartheid did not end capitalism and the insatiable greed of the capitalist elite. Even the World Bank describes South Africa as “the most unequal country in the world by any measure” (Financial Times, May 2, 2019). Therefore, these xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the daily insecurity and violence in Nigeria itself show the urgency for mass struggle to develop and mass workers’ parties built to end this unjust system. Otherwise the alternative is barbarism. Under a workers-led government armed with socialist policies, the key sectors of the economies of both countries will be placed under public ownership and democratic management. It is only by doing this that it can be possible to begin to utilise the enormous wealth of both countries and Africa as a whole to begin to provide decent jobs, quality public education and health care and a living wage for all.

Against the above background, therefore rather than call for attacks on South African businesses and even nationals as the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) appears to have been doing because of legitimate anger over the fate of Nigerian nationals in South Africa, the appropriate response ought to be for NANS to begin to lead a mass struggle involving nationwide lecture boycotts and mass protest to condemn the xenophobic attacks and also, very crucially, to place demands on the Nigerian government to begin to provide affordable and quality education, decent jobs and opportunities. It is the absence of these which is the reason many Nigerians are running out of the country in droves only to be slaughtered or sold as slaves in Libya and injured or killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa. We need to place the responsibility for the blood of Nigerians being shed both within the country and abroad where it appropriately belongs – the Nigerian capitalist ruling elite!

Likewise, the labour movement in Nigeria ought to take the same step by calling solidarity marches to condemn the xenophobic attacks while also placing the blame on the government whose ruinous policies is responsible for the influx of able bodied Nigerians abroad in search of greener pasture. With such mass rallies, labour can begin to build the momentum for a 24-hour general strike and mass protest for implementation of the N30, 00 minimum wage, reversal of electricity tariff hike, for decent jobs for all and investment in public education and healthcare, nationalisation of the keys sectors of the economy under democratic workers control and management etc.

We will like to end this statement by restating our condemnation of the xenophobic attacks while placing the blame squarely on the legacy of anti-poor policies of the capitalist governments of South Africa and Nigeria. We also restate the point that only solidarity can overcome and defeat xenophobia and all divisions.

We therefore call on the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the United Labour Congress (ULC) and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to immediately convey a meeting/conference composed of labour, students and youth activists as well as socialists and all pro-working people’s organizations and parties to discuss what the appropriate response of the labour and students movement in both Nigeria and South Africa should be to these attacks.

]]>German state elections: Common struggles and left alternative needed against populist right AfDhttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/04/dont-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief-after-the-state-elections-against-the-afd-we-need-common-struggles-and-a-really-left-alternative/
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 14:15:27 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15297The September 1 state elections in the eastern German states of Brandenburg and Saxony saw a continuation of the decline of Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU) currently Germany’s ruling parties. The losses for [...]

]]>The September 1 state elections in the eastern German states of Brandenburg and Saxony saw a continuation of the decline of Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU) currently Germany’s ruling parties. The losses for DIE LINKE (LEFT party) were massive. But the other side these elections saw the far right AfD (Alliance for Germany) maintain the high level of support it won in both the 2017 general and last May’s European elections. Even though the AfD has not become the strongest force in either of these two states there can be no question of breathing a sigh of relief.

Many people in East and West Germany were understandably relieved that the AfD did not emerge in Brandenburg and Saxony as the strongest force in the state elections. But that does not mean either a setback for the AfD or that all the social problems and fears for the future that contributed to its rise have disappeared. The polarisation remains. Those on the left, trade unionists and anti-racist activists must draw the necessary conclusions from these election results in order to develop a strategy that can actually stop the AfD.

Who can breathe a sigh of relief?

Immediately the headlines of the bourgeois news media spoke of a “sigh of relief” after the election. But for the majority of working and young people this is not the case. In Brandenburg and Saxony, they will once again be faced with a coalition, albeit with new components, that will continue the pro-capitalist policies that made the rise of the AfD possible in the first place.

And the rise of the right-wing populists is unmistakable: In both states the AfD is now the second strongest force with 27.8 percent (+18.1 percentage points) in Saxony and 23.7 percent (+11.5) in Brandenburg. But this is only a breather for the leaders of the so-called “people’s parties” SPD and CDU, which remain the strongest forces in Brandenburg and Saxony respectively. According to the pre-election polls this was far from being a foregone result. The SPD and CDU had to reckon with the possibility of more severe defeats, which would have directly questioned the continued existence of their national Grand Coalition under Merkel.

But the question is what can be regarded as a breather for them today? In both states the CDU and SPD both achieved their worst ever results. In Saxony, the SPD achieved its worst result ever in its history with just 7.6 percent. So great is the loss of legitimacy, so great is the political instability in the Germany, that the bourgeois establishment is relieved by such an outcome. But that doesn’t change the fact that the future of the Grand Coalition is anything but certain. The upcoming mid-term review, the election of a new SPD leadership and the debates on the orientation of the CDU could lead to its end and an early general election.

Increased voter turnout

Voter turnout in both elections increased significantly (up 17.5 percentage points in Saxony and 13.4 in Brandenburg). The AfD in particular was able to win from previous non-voters. At the same time, a larger number of people took part in the election in order to prevent the AfD from winning and to re-elect the ruling party. Thus, the free fall of the CDU in Saxony and the SPD in Brandenburg was cushioned. But despite this increase in voter turnout, it is necessary to note that in Saxony one in three voters and in Brandenburg almost forty percent of those eligible to vote did not vote at all. The proportion of people who do not feel represented by any party – not even by the AfD posing as a protest party – is still the largest. This is where the decisive potential for DIE LINKE lies to mobilise voters. For these people from the working class, it must become a convincing representative fighting for their interests.

The AfD’s breeding ground

The social breeding ground on which the AfD could thrive can also be a starting point for left-wing and socialist ideas. Thirty years after the restoration of capitalism and the sale of East German industry to West German corporations, there is a lack of future prospects, good jobs and infrastructure, especially in rural regions. In East Germany 1.2 million people, every third employee, works full-time but on a low wage. In the larger cities such as Leipzig, Dresden and Potsdam, rents are rising at the same time. This is the result of the pro-capitalist policies of recent decades. Against this background, it is no wonder that the AfD can act as an opposition to the establishment here – especially if there is no authentic offer from the left. In Saxony 83 percent and in Brandenburg 87 percent of AfD voters say that it is the only party with which one can express protest. It can also channel the fears of and agitation against migrants which the bourgeois parties and the media have been spreading for years.

The AfD regional associations in Brandenburg and Saxony are also dominated by the right-wing nationalist wing around Björn Höcke, who deliberately tries to combine social demagogy with racist propaganda and last year in Chemnitz sought solidarity with Nazis. It is highly dangerous that these forces should now also receive the votes of many workers. In Brandenburg, 44 percent of manual workers and 23 percent of the other employees who voted did so for the AfD! That must be a wake-up call for trade unionists and leftists.

Left alternative looks different

In order to stop the right, a credible and militant alternative from the left is needed, one that takes on the banks and corporations and their political representatives in the CDU, SPD and Greens and at the same time draws a clear line against division and racism. No moral appeals against the AfD help combat its rise, only the common fight of all workers and socially disadvantaged for social improvements. At the same time one must discuss with work colleagues who voted AfD and show them that their programme, despite some (empty) social promises, is ultimately oriented towards the interests of the corporations. Combining the struggle against racism in society with the struggle for higher wages and low rents, for example, is above all the task of the trade unions. Since reunification in Brandenburg and Saxony, DIE LINKE has unfortunately completely failed to organise such struggles and, as a party claiming to be socialist, to do justice to them.

The strategy of the East German LINKE leadership that one can negotiate social improvements with pro-capitalist parties such as the SPD and the Greens has failed, and not only in the last five years. In Brandenburg, as part of the red-red state government from 2009, DIE LINKE already lost 8.6 percent in the last election in 2014. This time, after another five years of being in coalition with the SPD, DIE LINKE’s Brandenburg vote was around 135,500 compared with 400,700 10 years ago. But even in Saxony, this strategy has not fundamentally changed anything at the municipal level, as for example in the Dresden city council. It is not the task of a left-wing party to administer the shortages etc., but to organise the struggle against the rich, banks and corporations who don’t suffer. The failure to do this gave an opportunity to the far right to falsely pose as defenders of working people.

The receipt for its policy was received by DIE LINKE in these elections, where its share was almost halved (18.9% to 10.4% in Saxony, 18.6% to 10.7% percent in Brandenburg). It is necessary for the East German LINKE to make a radical turn in the opposite direction. The party’s place must be in the city districts, companies and educational institutions, where it must enter into dialogue with wage earners, young people and the socially disadvantaged and help them to defend themselves and organise themselves. DIE LINKE must be present in the resistance and the local movements, where it must initiate or co-organise the struggle against low wages, usurious rents, the abolition of collective bargaining jobs and public infrastructure, etc. It must fight for improvements and make a difference in people’s real lives. That, of course, without weakening the fight against the right.

On this basis one could then also fill the goal of giving life to the fight a fundamentally different, socialist society. The election posters for “Democratic Socialism” of the Saxon LINKE instead seemed like abstract, empty creeds, when the day to day practice of the party is completely fixed within the framework of the capitalist system. Instead, the LINKE would have to show in all struggles (and also in parliament) that without the abolition of the capitalist profit system and its replacement by a socialist democracy, no sustainable and good life is feasible for all.

What do we do now?

The relatively stable economic situation in Germany seems to be coming to an end. However, this period was not a golden year for the employees, especially not in eastern Germany. The fact that such an unstable political landscape has developed in these years gives an idea of what the future holds. Against this background, the AfD’s recipe for growth in eastern Germany will to continue trying to play the role of the opposition. However, this could also increase the potential for conflict for the AfD as a whole if the rumbling internal infighting breaks out into the open after the October state elections in Thuringia, another East German state.

DIE LINKE will presumably try to conduct a government election campaign for red-red-green there. But if the party does not learn the lessons of the elections and fundamentally change its orientation, it risks its very existence. The discussion has already begun in DIE LINKE’s state associations and in the party as a whole, and is likely to increase after the elections in Thuringia. Instead of aiming to become a second SPD trying to work the capitalist system, what is needed is a militant socialist party that is the voice of wage earners and socially disadvantaged, but at the same time does not compromise its anti-racist principles. DIE LINKE must bring together colleagues, young people and activists from movements in the fight against social grievances, against those responsible for them and against right-wing populists and offer a socialist alternative to capitalism.

]]>Postal strike in Finland – government offers minor concessionshttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/04/postal-strike-government-offers-minor-concessions/
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 10:17:46 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15300The Finnish government today announced concessions in response to the ongoing Finnish postal workers’ strike. Their union – the PAU -began four days of strike action on Sunday 1 September in response to management plans [...]

]]>The Finnish government today announced concessions in response to the ongoing Finnish postal workers’ strike. Their union – the PAU -began four days of strike action on Sunday 1 September in response to management plans to cut the pay of hundreds of workers in the Finnish national postal service, Posti, by an average of 30%

Postal distribution workers walked out of sorting centers across Finland and have joined by postal truck drivers. Cargo loaders in two port cities, Hamina and Kotka, supported the strike with secondary action.

Speaking at a press conference today, Minister for state-owned businesses Sirpa Paatero said the government will review executive pay next month and, for now, “suspend” the pay cuts. PAU has suspended the strike action following additional private assurances from the government. However PAU demands the packaging & e-commerce workers at the center of the dispute be transferred to work directly under Posti as a condition of starting negotiations.

The union leaders of PAU need to press on in order to secure postal workers’ pay and conditions and to fight for a public, democratically-run postal service.

Pay cuts

The dispute has to do with the Byzantine Finnish system of national collective bargaining agreements. Two different collective agreements are applicable to packing workers and online shopping workers. Posti plans to transfer the workers covered under the more generous agreement to a different agreement with worse terms and conditions – one that covers newspaper distribution.

The plan would mean enormous pay cuts for many Posti workers, with some losing 50% of their salary starting in November. The workers were quick to make their objections to the offer known, with immediate wildcat walkouts staged in distribution centers in Tampere, Vantaa and Jyväskylä in protest.

Neoliberalism

Posti has been under pressure from the Finnish state for years. Most people’s instinct is to say that a postal service is a public service whose purpose is to facilitate communication among people, securely and affordably delivering letters, postcards and packages. Instead, in recent years, Posti has attempted absurd “diversification” projects. In 2016, as ever more private individuals turn to e-mail and other online ways of keeping in touch,they offered lawn-cutting services in order to stay profitable!

Under the neoliberal consensus of the European Union, public services only have value if they serve the immediate needs of big business. The Posti Group Oyj, while wholly owned by the Finnish state, is expected to turn an annual profit while at the same time facilitating business-to-business and e-commerce transactions as cheaply as possible: an impossible challenge and a perversion of the idea of public service.

Pressure from below

The strike presents the first significant challenge from below to Finland’s self-proclaimed “center-left,” Social Democrat-led government. It also comes just as the five government parties begin the process of formulating the 2020 budget.

A proposal for an alternative to cutbacks from an SDP-aligned board member is for the government simply to reinvest some of Posti’s profits – 8.7 million euro and rising – in order to pay for better staff salaries. PAU’s leadership has taken up the slogan “The post does not need to turn a profit!” (“Postin ei tarvitse tehdä voittoa!”) This demand has been the product of deep disgust at high executive pay. The CEO of Posti is paid nearly a million euro a year.

But asking the question “why should the postal service be operating for profit?” leads to another. Why should Posti be operating as a business in the first place?

A socialist solution

Public services should be in public hands. Institutions like the post office, health services, public utilities, and railways operate better – more cheaply, more accessibly, more sustainably – when they’re run democratically by the workers who know them best, preferably organized together under a democratic socialist government which plans the economy for the benefit of all. In a country where the rich continue to hoard wealth, there is no excuse for cuts in spending on public services.

The Social Democratic Prime Minister, Antti Rinne, has expressed disappointment at how the two recognition agreements overlap and has pledged to block its return, but concrete action still hasn’t even been formulated. Nothing better has come from Left Alliance leader and education minister, Li Andersson, who suggests that Posti’s cuts should be spread between labor and management.

The present concessions are not a total victory, and, if accepted, carry the risk of putting the dispute off until a more convenient time for the government.

This “center-left” government has not lifted one finger to reverse the past two decades of spending cuts and privatization of public services. As such, it is doing nothing to defend the Finnish economy from the global economic downturn even as it watches it commence, and we cannot trust it to make the changes necessary to ensure jobs, good wages and good conditions for Posti workers.

Fighting unions

The Rinne government deserves the pressure it is receiving from postal workers. On the other hand, these workers deserve a union that fights for them unconditionally, rather than one whose leadership poses as mediators between labor and management. The fact that this strike began with wildcat action shows how the union, PAU, is being dragged into action from below. But it is also a signal to trade unionists across Finland as to how rank-and-file organization can undermine even the most sold-out union bosses.

If the Posti strike could be connected with other disputes into a general strike, it could bring Finnish bosses and the government to its knees. If fighting unions join together under a mass socialist party of the working class, there is nothing that workers cannot achieve.

We say:

Fight on for concrete concessions! Build demonstrations of postal workers and the general public: get the message out in the streets!

Renationalize Posti and other public services. Public services for people, not for profit!

Build the strike; be ready to escalate it! Link up with workers in other sectors taking action!

]]>Hong Kong: Decisive battles aheadhttps://www.socialistworld.net/2019/09/03/hong-kong-decisive-battles-ahead/
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 10:55:18 +0000http://www.socialistworld.net/?p=15290After three months of unprecedented heroic mass struggle in Hong Kong against the Carrie Lam administration, there seems no sign of an end to the conflict. The beginning of term for school and university students [...]

]]>After three months of unprecedented heroic mass struggle in Hong Kong against the Carrie Lam administration, there seems no sign of an end to the conflict.

The beginning of term for school and university students in Hong Kong was marked by strikes and protests, human chains, speeches and mass demonstrations. This was in spite of huge pressure from police and university authorities to cancel the rally. Workers also organised hours-long blockades of police stations and a certain amount of ‘flash strike’ action. Nurses, for example, lined up along hospital corridors holding pro-democracy placards.

Thousands of students in helmets, masks and goggles rallied in the grounds of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.. They have decided on a two week boycott of their classes and secondary students will hold protests one day each week until the demands of the movement are met.

On Saturday (31 August) there were huge unsanctioned demonstrations. There was a march and a mass laser beam ‘attack’ on the government headquarters, barricade fighting with Molotov cocktail bombs and bloody battles on the metro. On Sunday, Hong Kong airport, the world’s third busiest, was besieged by protesters, angry at the sacking of staff for involvement in earlier protests, including the chair of the airline stewards’ organisation – Rebecca Sy On-na.

Police

The tactic of the police, heavily kitted out with visored helmets and riot shields, seems to be to allow large numbers to gather peacefully and then attack viciously with an ever-expanded assortment of weapons. In addition to the familiar batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray, they now have water cannon, tear gas and live ammunition.

159 people were arrested between Friday and Sunday with an age range of 13 to 58. Amongst them were well-known activists. “All this pushes Hong Kong to the brink of great danger,” a police spokesperson told a press briefing. It seems to be only a matter of time before there is a fatality and even more vicious battles will ensue.

Undercover provocateurs are at work amongst the demonstrators and that the police are not averse to gangster ‘triads’ being involved in the confrontations. Up until now, the mood of the demonstrators has been angry and sometimes distressed, but amazingly good-natured.

Up until now, the demonstrators have utilised various ways of taunting the police. Many wear large pads of gauze over one eye in solidarity with the woman whose eye was badly injured in a battle. Others hold up their hands with their ring fingers held down to remind the police of what happened to one of their number who lost his finger in a clash with demonstrators.

Another disconcerting habit the protesters have is to make the sound of yapping dogs as dog is their nickname for a police officer. Little wonder that the press has discerned a certain level of demoralisation in the ranks of the police and their own association complains about the “unprecedented challenges to their personal safety”.

A further humiliation for the forces of the state was having to allow a mass #ProtestToo (#MeToo type) demonstration to take place last Wednesday (28 August) evening. Purple lights were beamed up in the air in mass support for protesters who were victims of sexual harrassment by the police – male as well as female.

Concession and repression

Carrie Lam, who, as Hong Kong’s Chief Minister, represents Beijing, held a press conference to reaffirm there would be no movement on the five demands which include an amnesty for the more than 1,000 arrested, an end to the threat of extradition and establishing universal suffrage. Lam threatened she could use “a colonial-era law” to close down the internet and impose a curfew. She also warned (again) of possible army repression. However, Reuters news agency reports her telling business ‘leaders’ she regretted the “unforgivable havoc” she had caused and “would quit if I could”!

On the same day as Carrie Lam’s press conference threatening a clamp-down, some well-known figures in the ‘democracy movement’ were celebrating a victory. A Hong Kong court had just overturned a decision to disqualify a pro-democracy candidate, Agnes Chow from a bye-election last year to the local ‘parliament’ – LegCo – last year.

There seems to be no end in sight for the unprecedented confrontation on the streets of Hong Kong. To survive, demonstrators have been recommended to use Bruce Lee’s maxim: “Spread like water!”. Businesses have been advised to “bend like bamboo”!

But the Beijing government is clearly threatening some kind of intervention. It fears the consequences this movement could have in the rest of China. A few days ago it carried out a very demonstrative, if routine, changing of the guard at the Hong Kong barracks of the ‘People’s Liberation Army’ with an influx of fresh Chinese troops from the ‘mainland’. It also moved troops doing military exercises in Shenzhen closer to the border.

Xi Jinping’s government has allowed news of trouble in Hong Kong to filter through the heavily controlled state media accompanied by talk of the need to suppress attempts at a foreign-sponsored ‘colour revolution’ against its rule. This is aimed at preparing the ground for an intervention and crackdown using Chinese forces should they deem it necessary. Another Tiananmen Square style crushing of the movement is not entirely excluded although difficult given the scale of the movement or other brutal repressive measures.

The repressive regime of the so-called Communist Party in power in Beijing is increasingly alien to most people in Hong Kong. They are well aware of the total lack of democratic rights across the length and breadth of China – anathema also to any genuine socialist. But if the battle to defend and extend democratic rights in Hong Kong is to gain a lasting success it must include a conscious appeal to the workers, the poor and the youth of China to join them in a struggle to achieve genuine workers’ democracy and a democratic planning of the economy based on nationalisation and genuine socialism.

In a month’s time, the government of Xi Jinping wants to be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the victory of Mao Tse Tung and the Red Army over imperialism in 1949. Marxists have characterised this as the second greatest event in history, after the Russian revolution of October 1917, releasing hundreds of millions of peasants and workers in the cities from the iron heel of landlords and capitalists. However, the overthrow of landlordism and capitalism in China did not result in the establishment of a socialist state with genuine control by elected representatives of workers together with the poor peasants, but adopted the bureaucratic, repressive Stalinist model of rule.

In recent decades, the Chinese regime has moved towards the restoration of capitalism but with special features of state capitalism, including state intervention and control of the economy, and maintained a one party regime.

The so-called communist leaders are still terrified of being pushed out of their extremely privileged positions by a movement from below whether of workers or of a rival upstart gang of capitalist robbers. If the threat to their rule represented by the movement in Hong Kong shows no sign of abating, then a direct military intervention could be on the cards. In fact there has been a warning this week from Beijing that “The end is coming”.

In this situation it is vital not only to step up the fight for the movement’s five democratic demands but to go further. General strike action which can bring the working life of Hong Kong to a halt is vital for developing a political struggle against the big banks and businesses that furnish the Hong Kong-based oligarchs with their vast fortunes.

In fact, even if the five democratic demands of the movement were achieved, which is not ruled out given the tenacity of the fighters and the numbers involved, the victory would be only temporary and basic democratic freedoms of expression, organisation, press etc. would be hard to maintain.

This is why it is vital to build representative elected defence committees in the neighbourhoods and in the workplaces and elect from them representatives to go onto area action committees, all based on the principle of workers’ democracy (something that the leadership of the Chinese ‘Communist’ Party has never tolerated). The logical aim would be to elect representatives onto a revolutionary constituent assembly to discuss programme and organisation to take the movement on to the socialist demands.

Some participants in the movement could have illusions in the US, British or other governments coming to their aid. But these governments act purely to defend the profits and interests of thei r capitalist classes and have no quarms about cooperating with, and supporting dictatorships. No trust can be placed in the ruling elite and capitalists of Hong Kong or their political parties to struggle to defend the rights and interests of the workers and youth. Workers and young people need their own party to struggle for such a programme to offer a way forward.

Only a struggle for genuine democratic socialism – in Hong Kong and the rest of China – would assure a lasting victory and a better life for all working and poor people. This would also be the only way to establish the right to genuine self-determination not only for the people of Hong Kong, but for the numerous national minorities oppressed by the central Chinese state machine. A confederation of socialist states in the region would then be on the agenda.

The movement in Hong Kong has been inspiring. With a sage and sober leadership it could be the spark for revolutionary movements across Asia and beyond. If at this stage, the movement does not develop, it will nevertheless have provided huge lessons for future struggles to throw off dictatorship and open the road to a socialist world.